Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 years of Change in New England

This important book relates the history of natural and human-induced changes that have occurred in the past one thousand years in New England and explores the modern ecology of this largely forested landscape. Written by leading biological, physical, and social scientists, the book uniquely demonstrates that an understanding of landscape history is essential for the study of ecology and environmental management.

After a discussion of the elements that initially shaped the land, the authors describe how the New England landscape changed drastically with the arrival of European settlers nearly four hundred years ago, as they cleared the land of forest and extensively farmed it. Observed patterns of forest regrowth following a shift in agriculture to the Midwest form the basis for explanations of changes in native wildlife populations and, more fundamentally, ecosystem structure and function.




David R. Foster is director of the Harvard Forest at Harvard University and principal investigator of its Long Term Ecological Research program, one of twenty-five national centers for ecological research funded by the National Science Foundation. John D. Aber is a professor in the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space and the Department of Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire. A principal investigator for the Harvard Forest and Hubbard Brook Long Term Ecological Research sites, he is coauthor of Terrestrial Ecosystems.